


Where the Heart Lies

by mallardeer



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Almost smut?, F/F, F/M, Multi, WHERE DID THIS COME FROM
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-24
Updated: 2017-08-24
Packaged: 2018-12-19 13:31:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11898780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mallardeer/pseuds/mallardeer
Summary: James and Lena haven't had much time to connect outside of their relationship with Kara. Until a late night for Kara at Catco gives them an opportunity.





	Where the Heart Lies

**Author's Note:**

> And now for something completely different! All my thanks to tumblr user idontneedtobeforgiven for the encouragement.

Kara loves them both, loves their bodies, loves their minds, loves the way they make her feel, loves the way they make each other laugh, loves the way they worry about her—and about each other. When she can’t take time to bring Lena lunch, sometimes James will. When they’re both frustrated with their high-stress jobs, she’ll drag them to the DEO gym to punch things. Lena has gotten really quite good at punching things. 

She falls asleep most nights cuddled between them now, at her place or James’s or Lena’s. She can’t get enough of either of them. 

There are nights when James works late, so she and Lena send him distracting pictures. There are weeks when Lena has to go to business conferences, so she and James make home movies and sometimes even torment Lena via FaceTime. She scolds them, saying she’ll never get anything done, but they always end the calls smiling goofily at each other—all three of them. 

She’s the one who never leaves, at least not for mundane reasons. And she can’t blame James and Lena for not feeling particularly sexy when she’s off battling aliens and crime lords. More often than not, they’re right there with her, James as Guardian at her back with Alex and Lena at the DEO command center with Winn. 

So she never gets a sense of how they interact when she’s not there. As far as she knows, they rarely do. When she is there, they’re often more focused on her than on each other, but she loves to watch the easy way they move around each other in the kitchen on Sunday mornings or the way they good-naturedly argue over who gets to choose the movie on lazy Saturday afternoons. She especially adores the way Lena will hip-check James when he’s standing in her way and the way he laughs with her. 

Whenever there’s a cuddle heap on the couch, she’s in the middle, and really she wouldn’t have it any other way—she’d hate to have to choose between either of them—but she wonders… How do they really feel about each other? She knows she’s in love with both of them and that they love her, and James and Lena are certainly more than just friends. But she’s undeniably at the center of their relationship, and she starts to wonder what’s happening at the edges.

There comes a night when Lena gets home from a week-long conference late, and Kara is stuck working on a seventh revision for Snapper, so she kisses James and sends him off to pick Lena up from the airport. “Be home soon,” she sighs, and he smiles at her. 

  
“We’ll miss you,” he winks, and then he is gone. 

\--

It’s not often that he spends any time alone with Lena, despite their arrangement, despite their feelings, despite…everything they have in common. Kara is really what’s holding them together, but he’s grown an easy, comfortable rapport with Lena over the past year. And when he sees her, waiting on the curb at the airport, he is a little surprised at the way his heart speeds up. 

  
But she is—has always been—utterly gorgeous. And even now, after a full day of traveling, she looks beautiful, with her dark hair falling past her shoulders, her smile lighting up her face when she sees him.   
  
“Hey, stranger,” he says, popping out of the car to collect her luggage. “How was the trip?” He bends to press a gentle kiss to her cheek, and to his surprise, her arms come up and encircle his neck.  
  
“Long,” she murmurs, breathing him in, and he drops her bags and holds her close.   
  
Something about this feels off without Kara, but he does love the way she fits against his body, the way she curls into him so trustingly, the little sigh she makes as she realizes she’s come home. “We missed you,” he tells her, and kisses her head.   
  
“Did you?” she laughs, pulling back. “I seem to recall you having quite a bit of fun without me.”

He guffaws and quickly tosses her things into the car. “It’s always more fun when you’re there,” he teases, and she blushes. “Kara’s stuck working late,” he says abruptly. “Do you want to wait for her at your place?”

“Please,” she sighs, folding herself into the car.

She puts her hand on his thigh as he drives her home, and he looks over and smiles at her. “Keep it in your pants, Luthor,” he taunts, and she smirks at him, moving her hand much higher. “Or…not?”  
  
“Don’t get too excited, James,” she grins, and he shakes his head, but she doesn’t move her hand. 

“Do you think…maybe it’s our turn to send Kara some distracting pictures?” he asks in a low voice, as he pulls into her building’s garage.  
  
“Yes. I certainly think it’s past time for that,” she agrees, and pulls him down into a searing kiss.

As her lips move against his, her hands fumble with his belt buckle, and it hits him. “Lena,” he says, carefully pulling away. “You’ve never…kissed me before.”

She blinks up at him and then laughs a little, bringing her hand to his face. “You know how crazy I am about Kara, but this week…I realized I missed you just as much.”

He smiles and shakes his head. “I…yeah. I’ve been missing you too.”  
  
“It’s all right if you don’t—” Lena starts to say, and James recognizes the classic deflection and leans in to gently kiss her.   
  
“Hey. Don’t,” he says softly. “I’ll never say anything to you I don’t mean. Okay?”  
  
She nods and lets her head fall to his chest. He strokes her hair for a minute and then lifts her head up. “Come on. Let’s go inside.”

He grabs her bags and then takes her hand and lets her lead him up to her apartment. Once inside, they’re suddenly shy with each other in a way they haven’t been since Kara brought them all crashing together all those months ago. 

“You didn’t expect to actually have feelings for me, huh?” he says, smiling at Lena as she stands in the middle of the living room. 

She laughs, shrugs. “I’ve always been fond of you, James. And it’s been…surprisingly easy to be with you and Kara this way. But I did… I did think I was mostly doing this for her.”  
  
He takes her in his arms, and she instantly relaxes against him, and he marvels at how different from Kara she feels. Where Kara is all hard lines, muscle and steel, Lena is softness. “Me too,” he admits. “Exactly what you said.”  
  
“And now?” she asks, looking up at him.

He kisses her softly and then spins her out of his arms. 

“And now we have some pictures to take,” he grins, and she laughs and tugs him toward her bedroom. 

\--

Kara’s forehead is resting on her desk as Snapper berates her for the eleventh time that evening, when her phone buzzes. He throws up his hands and walks away, so she eagerly checks the message, delighted to see it’s from Lena.

When she sees what it is, it’s all she can do not to crush her phone into dust. Lena is wearing only her bra and underwear, and James—only in his boxer briefs—has his hand between her breasts, as she angles her head back to kiss him. 

They’ve never shown her anything like this before, and her whole body feels hot. “Oh my god,” she murmurs, swallowing hard. 

“Hurry home,” Lena adds beneath the photo, and Kara curses everything about her job.   
  
“If you think you’re leaving before I do tonight, Danvers, you’ve got another thing coming!” Snapper yells from his office. 

“Kill me,” Kara mutters, setting her phone down carefully. 

As soon as she manages to get some semblance of control over herself, her phone buzzes again. Knowing it’s probably a terrible idea to look, she still picks it up. “We’re waiting,” Lena has sent, with another photo. 

This time, James’s hand has slid past the waistband of Lena’s underwear, and Kara gets so flustered she does actually destroy her phone, clenching it so hard it collapses like it’s made of paper. “Crap,” she mutters, shoving it into her desk drawer. 

Her heart is thundering in her ears, and her own underwear is probably ruined. She’s thought about what James and Lena might do without her every once in a while—but only idly. Actually seeing it has done something to her she never could have predicted.

“Danvers!” Snapper hollers, and she jumps guiltily. “If that article isn’t finished in ten minutes, you’re fired.”

“Yes, boss,” she calls back, fighting to regain control of herself. Well, at least she won’t be able to receive any more dirty pictures from her paramours. Which is good for job—but terrible for her self.

\--

“She didn’t reply at all?” James asks, kissing Lena’s neck as she tries to figure out another angle for their “torment Kara” pictures.   
  
“No. So either Snapper has murdered her or we’re so hot she broke her phone when she saw us,” Lena laughs, turning in James’s arms to kiss him.   
  
“I’d say those two possibilities are about equally likely,” James says, lifting her into his arms.   
  
She instinctively wraps her legs around his waist, and he firmly grabs her ass. “Oh god,” she moans, and crashes their lips together. “Should we…be doing this without Kara?” she asks, but James just kisses her neck in response.   
  
“You and Kara do this without me,” he answers eventually. “And Kara and I without you. I think it’s…fair if that’s what you’re worried about.”  
  
“Do you…want to?” she asks, distressed at how quickly she’s gone from completely turned on to completely unsure.   
  
She’s only ever been so vulnerable with Kara, and she freezes as she waits for James’s response. He carefully sets her on the bed and sits down next to her. “What did I tell you earlier?” he asks. “I’ll never say anything I don’t mean.”  
  
Just as she’s about to kiss him, the door to her apartment slams open, and they jump apart. “Kara?” James calls, pushing Lena behind him protectively.   
  
“You two are evil, do you know that?” comes his answer, and he and Lena laugh gleefully.   
  
By the time Kara reaches the bedroom, she is wearing only her underwear, and she flings her bra at Lena. “You owe me a phone.”  
  
“Ha! I told you she destroyed her phone,” Lena laughs, and Kara shakes her head to hide her grin.   
  
“I didn’t realize you two…liked each other so much,” she flirts, putting on hand on James’s chest and the other on Lena’s. 

  
“We didn’t either,” Lena admits, and all of them laugh.   
  
“Well, don’t let me interrupt…too much. Please, go back to what you were doing,” Kara says, gesturing at the bed. 

“Shall we?” James asks, grabbing Lena’s hips, and her answer is to slide her hand past the waistband of his boxers.   
  
“Mmm, yes,” she practically purrs, and Kara makes a strangled noise. 

  
They put on quite a show for their audience of one, and at one point, Kara decides to join in, but Lena lazily swats her away. “It’s your turn to just watch, miss,” she scolds playfully, and delights in the way Kara’s whole body flushes.  
  
“That’s…that’s just fine,” Kara manages. James takes pity on her a bit and kisses her, but Lena pulls him back toward her, and they forget about Kara for a while.

Eventually, they do relent, and pull Kara in between them, eagerly rewarding her for her patience. 

 

Afterward, Lena is sprawled in between both of them, head on Kara’s chest, legs flung over James’s hips, feeling more relaxed than she has in weeks. Kara strokes her hair as James idly traces his fingers up and down her arm, and she sighs contentedly. “You two did miss me, huh?” she yawns, snuggling closer to Kara. 

  
“We always miss you,” Kara says, and kisses her temple.   
  
“Yeah, Lee. We’re never as good without you,” James says, and all she can do is shake her head. 

“Also, the two of you are insanely hot together, but if you take anymore pictures like the ones you sent me, I’m going to go through a phone a week,” Kara says, and James grins.  
  
“Well, I’ll see what I can do about inventing a phone a Super can’t break,” Lena teases.  
  
“I don’t know, Lena, it sounds like she doesn’t want any more pictures,” James says slyly, and Kara vigorously shakes her head.   
  
“No, no wait. I didn’t mean that. I want way more pictures,” Kara decides, and James leans over to kiss her.   
  
“We’ll see what we can do,” he promises. 

\--

The next morning, blessedly, is Saturday, and James wakes up first, carefully extricating himself from their tangle of limbs. As he pulls on his shorts and t-shirt, he watches Kara burrow further into Lena’s arms and smiles, leaning down to kiss both of them before heading off to the kitchen to see about breakfast.   
  
Once the coffee is brewing, he rummages through the refrigerator for something to cook. The grocery situation at Lena’s is pretty dire—she has been away for a week—so he realizes he’s going to have to go to the store. 

  
The smell of the coffee brings Kara into the kitchen, wearing only the button up shirt he’d discarded on the floor the night before. “Morning,” she says, wrapping her arms around him.   
  
“Morning,” he says, dropping a kiss on her head. “The kitchen is barren, except for coffee. I’m headed to the store.”  
  
“Mmm, nah, don’t go,” Kara says, nuzzling his neck.   
  
“What? You don’t want food?” he asks playfully, and she rolls her eyes.   
  
“Just coffee and you, please,” she says sweetly, and he kisses her.   
  
“Lena’s still asleep?” he asks, breaking away to pour their coffees.  
  
“Mmm. She’s pretty wiped out after her week,” Kara reports, sitting at the center island. “I hate when she’s gone so long.”  
  
“Me too. Much as I do enjoy having you all to myself, it’s better with the three of us,” James says, flashing a quick grin as he places her mug in front of her.   
  
“I know, right?” Kara says thoughtfully. “Do you ever think it’s…weird?”  
  
“I did, at first. But it never really got awkward, and I was pretty much sure it would. I really… I just love both of you,” he says, staring at his coffee.   
  
Kara bounces up and throws her arms around him. “I love you, James,” she says brightly, and kisses him. “And now I’m almost positive Lena does too.”  
  
“Lena does too, what?” Lena asks, padding into the kitchen in a short silk robe.  
  
“Love James!” Kara says happily, and though Lena blushes, she nods.   
  
“Yes,” she agrees, and James positively beams at her, reaching to pull her into his arms with Kara. 

“Well, since there’s no food, how about I take my best girls out to breakfast?” James offers winningly, and that’s all Kara needs to hear.   
  
She bounds off to the bedroom to get dressed, but Lena stays close to James, letting her head rest against his chest. “It’s good to have you home,” he tells her.   
  
“It’s good—really good—to be home,” she replies. 


End file.
